In the fast moving world of the 21st century it can seem an overwhelming task to stay up-to-date with all the latest information. Regularly changing web content on news-related sites can take an age to trawl through before you find the information you're really interested in and with every site displaying information in a slightly different way finding information can become extremely unproductive. The answer to this problem is RSS.
RSS, most commonly standing for 'Really Simple Syndication', is a technology that enables the user to find relevant information quickly and efficiently. It strips down the information to its core components (title, date written, description etc.) and displays the information (feed) in a common format. Most, if not all, of the big news agencies including the BBC use RSS as a means to keep readers up to date. What's more RSS allows the user to subscribe to a feed so that they are informed whenever a new item is published.
Heathfield Community College now offers an RSS news feed so you can stay up-to-date with all the latest school news.
Subscribe to RSS
To subscribe to RSS you need an RSS reader - links to download one are below. Once you have the reader installed you enter the address of the feed, similar to entering a website address and that's it. The program will download all the latest stories and let you know when new ones are available.
Mac OS X (10.4 Tiger +)
If you're using a mac - congratulations! Not only have you picked a fantastic computer with a fantastic operating system but getting RSS couldn't be simpler. Open up the Heathfield Community College Homepage and click on the RSS logo in the address bar:
You can then bookmark this page (in the column down the right under 'Actions' Click on 'Add Bookmark') and safari will let you know when a new article is added.
If you don't have the latest version of Mac Os X you can also download an RSS reader.
'NetNewsWire lite' (http://ranchero.com/netnewswire/) is quite a good one. Download NetNewsWire Lite 2.0.1 (3.1 MB)
Windows
FeedReader (http://www.feedreader.com/) is free, easy to install and easy to use. A direct download is available here . Once it's installed click on add new feed and enter http://6ixdesign.co.uk/xml/feed.rss and click 'next', then 'finish'. A Heathfield Community College icon will appear on the left hand column which will update when there is any new news items.
